1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector having a reduced longitudinal dimension.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computers are widely used in the fields of E-commerce, E-business, Home network, internet work station and so on. Each computer has a data storage center, e.g. hard disk, where computer software and business data information are saved. When the computer runs, the computer Central Processing Unit (CPU) continuously accesses the hard disk and takes data from the hard disk or saves data to the hard disk. The CPU is commonly connected to the hard disk via flat flexible cables (FFCs) and FFC connectors assembled to opposite ends of the FPCs. For compatibility, the hard disk driver interfaces are standardized. There are many hard disk driver interface standards and the SCSI families and ATA families are the most famous in the last decade. The electrical connector used in hard disk driver must comply with the corresponding interface standards. Last year, an organization, called the Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) Working Group and set up by APT Technologies Inc, Dell Computer Corporation, International Business Machines, Intel Corporation, Maxtor Corporation, Quantum Corporation, and Seagate Technology released a specification to define the SATA interface and the corresponding connectors. The specification defines a first type of SATA connector connecting to a cable and a second type of SATA connector mounting to a printed circuit board (PCB).
The second type of SATA connector defined by the specification includes an insulative housing, a plurality of contacts received in the housing and two board locks fixed to the housing for attaching the connector to the PCB. The housing provides a guiding post on each one of two opposite side faces of the housing for guiding the connector to mate with a mating connector. The housing also provides a retention portion on each of the opposite side faces connected to a corresponding guiding post. Since the guiding post is connected to the corresponding retention portion, the retention portion must further outwardly extend a certain distance beyond an outermost surface of the guiding post to provide a base for retaining the corresponding board lock. Thus, the connector has a relatively larger dimension. This design does not answer for the small dimension requirement in computer industry. Hence, an improved electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.